Michelle “Let-them-Eat-Cake” Obama- affectionately known as ‘Mooch’- has decided to fly off to Hawaii ahead of her husband because, well, she doesn’t want to wait. I pointed out to R the following White House press conference exchange:

QUESTION: The First Lady is going to be leaving in a few hours for Hawaii, obviously she isn’t able to go with the President. But I wanted to ask you, isn’t it quite an extravagence? Four people to go in two jets to Hawaii, particularly given, the state of the economy the state of the budget, and also given the directive that was just put out about limiting air travel by the adminstration?

Oh please Gorilla … give me a f*cking break. If Obama flew off to HI with his family you’d be crying foul that he’s vacationing when he should be governing. Now you want the First Family grounded to save money. There’s no winning with you.

Stop tossing the petty sh*t out there and focus on something meaningful like whether or not you think the payroll tax reduction should be extended.

Hmmmmmm, an interesting deflection, considering that the two-month extension passed by the Senate won’t work. What’s worse, it is this mentality that Obama is entitled to a nice vacation because he is, well, Obama. I pointed out the obligation Obama has to manage the resources of the government wisely, and the fact that this is not the first time Mooch has vacationed on our dime, to which R opines:

So Gorilla, you don’t buy Jay Carney’s assertion that previous First families have flown to their destinations on military jets without the President?

I’m still wondering … if Obama doesn’t get to Hawaii at all because of congressional masturbation, is the First Family supposed to cancel their vacation plans?

I suffer under no illusion that the First Family and my family get to live the same lifestyle. Being President carries some perks. It always has in recent history.

Some perks. Indeed.

What R doesn’t seem to understand is that those perks come with some responsibility. Like Michelle Obama leaving early to go to Martha’s Vineyard because she didn’t want to wait four hours. Four hours! Separate aircraft, separate crews, separate security details- is it really too much to ask for Mooch to cool her heals for four hours? She has reportedly spent more than $10 million dollars in the last year alone on vacation. Vail. Colorado? Spain? Really, is this woman worked that hard?

And how much do you think all those concerts at the White House cost? Even if you managed to get Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder or Paul Simon to play for free, these are black tie affairs and there are plenty of entertainment costs, like food and beverages, security, staff support, etc. How much does this cost?

And this doesn’t even account for the 88 rounds of golf so far. But this is all in the face of the fact that Obama just signed an Executive Order titled Promoting Efficient Spending that says:

Sec. 3. Travel. (a) Agency travel is important to the effective functioning of Government and certain activities can be performed only by traveling to a different location. However, to ensure efficient travel spending, agencies are encouraged to devise strategic alternatives to Government travel, including local or technological alternatives, such as teleconferencing and video conferencing. Agencies should make all appropriate efforts to conduct business and host or sponsor conferences in space controlled by the Federal Government, wherever practicable and cost effective. Lastly, each agency should review its policies associated with domestic civilian permanent change of duty station travel (relocations), including eligibility rules, to identify ways to reduce costs and ensure appropriate controls are in place.

(b) Each agency, agency component, and office of inspector general should designate a senior level official to be responsible for developing and implementing policies and controls to ensure efficient spending on travel and conference related activities, consistent with subsection (a) of this section.

Now Rutherford will go on and call this “bad optics”. That all White House’s entertain and that all President’s vacation. But there has never been a bigger lie wrapped in a thread truth than this. Does it matter whether previous President’s held concerts or traveled on extravagant vacations? We’re talking about this pResident, who is asking the people to vote for him a second term. Obama has gone on and on about how he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, yet he has been by far the worst custodian of the people’s money in the history of the nation.

·$5 trillion dollars worth of deficits since Obama took office, accounting for 1/3 of the $15 trillion dollar national debt.

This Administration has been the poster child for incompetency. Even when wasteful spending has been identified- by government agencies no less- this Administration has failed to address it. For instance, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified $125 billion in improper payments. Remember when we needed to find a trillion dollars over the next ten years to prevent sequestration? Well here it is: $125 billion x 10 years = $1.25 trillion dollars. Or how about the $200 billion identified on duplicate federal programs? $200 billion x 10 years = $2 trillion dollars.

Hmmmmm, in about three minutes, I just found $3.25 trillion dollars in savings over the next ten years.

But this requires a simple recognition that the money of the people actually belongs to the people and that it is a finite resource. Obama and Dems in general have demonstrated absolutely zero ability to recognize that fact, which is why you see them blow $500 billion on failing pet projects like Solyndra, or just the total disregard that comes with flying two presidential aircraft four hours apart because someone can’t wait. How can Obama make the argument that he cares about fiscal responsibility when he has been anything but fiscally responsible?

Instead, Obama and the left are focused on deflecting the election away from the Administration’s record and towards ‘ideas’. The reasoning is obvious, Obama- contrary to his own narcissistic analysis of himself- cannot defend his record, so he needs to focus on rhetoric and platitudes. Just like 2008, Obama is going to focus on nebulous ideas that vilifies one segment of our society while victimizing the other.

And Rutherford, right on cue, is proving me exactly right. Can’t defend Mooch, so he attacks me for expecting Obama to… save money? OH MY GOD!!! The horror! The travesty! How DARE one have such expectations!

Rutherford, pull you head out of your ass, scrape the shit from your eyes, and look at what you hold up as an example. Clearly, you can’t fix stupid.

27 responses to “You Can’t Fix Stupid”

With so many famous bloggers out there for you to criticize you chose little old unknown me. My heart’s truly aflutter.

Listen, the point I made back at my blog still stands. With truly MAJOR issues to worry about right now, some pointing to Obama’s failure, some not, this obsession with the behavior of the First Lady just comes off immature. And we truly are talking pure optics here. If Michelle Obama never took another vacation it would put a .000000001% crack in our nation’s deficit.

You don’t like the way it LOOKS. I don’t necessarily blame you but I still say its small potatoes that speaks more to a personal disdain for the First Family than any legitimate domestic policy gripe.

P.S. You may know more about this based on your background than I do but I’m guessing the military jet used by the First Lady is not a duplicate of Air Force One and is not nearly as cushy. I’m not saying she travels like cargo but she’s not doubling the price of the trip by not taking AF1 with the Pres.

But this requires a simple recognition that the money of the people actually belongs to the people and that it is a finite resource. Obama and Dems in general have demonstrated absolutely zero ability to recognize that fact, which is why you see them blow $500 billion on failing pet projects like Solyndra, or just the total disregard that comes with flying two presidential aircraft four hours apart because someone can’t wait. How can Obama make the argument that he cares about fiscal responsibility when he has been anything but fiscally responsible?

Her aircraft is not bad by a long shot. Read the link to the $10 million vacation cost.

So tell us R, at what point does bad optics stop and poor management begin?

You’re proving my point. $10 million? Sounds like a lot to me but in the total scheme of things .000000001% of our budget deficit. The Fed gave away 1.7 trillion without telling anybody. I haven’t seen you blog about that. THAT ought to have you mighty concerned.

Not to mention the fact that you actually haven’t proven what percent of an Obama vacation is on the taxpayer’s dime. I suggest you have no idea how much the Obama’s pay for their own recreation. (I’m not including the military jet in that calculation.)

The fact that they pushed 7.7 trillion- not 1.7 trillion- is extremely concerning, but it is seperate from the point that Obama is a horrible custodian of tax dollars. You can try to mitigate that all you want, it doesn’t excuse what is horrible behavior.

But once again you prove my general point. “10 million? sounds like a lot but in the greater scheme of things…” In the greater scheme of things it is still 10 illion dollars. How many middle class people had to pay taxes to get to that number? Would you take 10 million serious? Why would you not expect him to do the same, especially since it isn’t his money in the first place.

Would you accept that from a banker using bank customer deposits to send his wife on several vacations? The differance is what?

You didn’t address one key part of my comment …. how do you know what percentage of Obama’s vacations are paid by Obama? If we’re going to get right down to it, ANY pure vacation Obama takes using taxpayer money, even one dollar of it, is embezzlement.

So there you have it … if Obama is writing off his wife’s vacations as business expense, even a dollar of it, then the man should be impeached. If former Presidents have done the same thing, they all should have been impeached. It’s embezzlement.

R, I don’t address your red herring because it is just that. If the Obama’s want to spend 50,000 a week in the Vineyard, fine, but they don’t pay the salaries of the mandatory Secret service personnel, or the Air Force pilots, or the Air Force jet, etc, etc, etc.

I recognize there is always some public expense, which means all the more reason for responsible action by the President. Why do you struggle with that?

The best way to lay this argument to rest is to compare the vacation expenses of the Obama’s to those of other recession-time Presidents, adjusting for inflation. If such a comparison reveals the Obama’s to be overly extravagant, I shall spank the First Rump and you can hand me the paddle.

Rutherford would you concede that the POTUS vacation issue dating back to say JFK shows better for the GOP’ers?
I say this thinking about how W went home to his ranch,Bush Sr. went to a family home in Kennebunkport and RR went to his ranch. Compare this to Obama and the Clintons who took vacations at locales heavy on influence peddling suspicions. To his credit JFK is remembered as returning home to H’Port.
I guess I can say image wise the Presidential time off is more palatable for reasonable folks when the POTUS goes simple.

Lincoln was ashamed of Mary Todd’s spending and the extravagance that many thought came with the office. I wonder what Lincoln would think of Obama (whom he compares himself to). Do you think he tried to justify it by comparing it to his peace-time predecessors? Do you think Lincoln considered it a question of “optics” or leadership?

Do you think he tried to justify it by comparing it to his peace-time war-time predecessors?

I fixed it for you Tigre. I asked G to compare Obama to recession-time Presidents for the sake of consistency. So Lincoln should be compared to war-time Presidents.

With that out of the way, Lincoln (or at least his legend) is known as one of our most modest Presidents. I’m sure he would be ashamed of Obama but equally ashamed of all modern Presidents who got where they are partly by dint of being relatively wealthy. Kennebunkport and the Crawford Ranch are hardly five bedroom two car garage homes. They exemplify opulence.

Exemplify opulence? Not quite. They’re rich for sure, but not opulent.

We can play the ‘my Pres is better than yours’ game all day- and you’ll lose 9 out of 10 times- but that isn’t the point. You keep trying to drag in other Administrations to this discussion, when it is about only one: Obama. He’s the guy in office; he promised proper custodianship; he promised to eliminate the deficit; he promised to bring a new tone to Washington. He has failed at every turn to do anything he said he would do, you let him get away with it. We knew he was lying when he said those things, but you’re the one who swallowed it whole, and now you refuse to accept and acknowledge that you were sold a bill of goods.

This attitude that if past Presidents wasted money then it is ok for Obama to do it is ludicrous. We are 15 trillion dollars in debt. This President is responsible for 5 trillion of that- in just 3 years mind you- and we have already suffered one credit downgrade and are likely to see another. At what point do you stop the partisan finger pointing and hold yourself, and your candidate accoutable?

Alfie I think you’ve struck upon a premise that I can at least partly sign up for. When the President stays domestic it not only appears simple but appeals to our sense of nationalism. With that said, Hawaii is one of the 50 states. It IS where the man grew up at least for some of his childhood. The fact that it is in the middle of the Pacific ocean is not Obama’s fault. Would you prefer that the first family buy a ranch in Kansas and vacation there?

R, the comaprisons I saw included Clinton, Reagan, Bush. I was deliberate in my comparison choice.
Defend it all you want. If he’s going to play the class envy angle, he might want to consider how his personal extravagance appears.

Exactly correct. Obama is the epitome of hypocrisy. Remember date night in New York? Of course all the Marthe Vineyard vacations and Hawaii certainly doesn’t help. How about Vail or Spain? Then there are the constant parties at the WH and the golf trips. And when he is not doing these, he’s off on a fundraiser.

The man doesn’t work. He lives off of the excesses of the office. It is pathetic.

The only ones pathetic are those bloggers who waste the readers time with essentially personal attacks. If you REALLY think the President of the United States (ANY President) “does not work”, then you have doubled down on stupid.

Give it a rest. You and these silly vacation arguments are exactly why Obama will be reelected next November. If you want him out of the White House, FOCUS.

“Someone asked me a question about whether I feel confined or trapped in some way. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I couldn’t do what Barack does. But I think what I’ve been able to do; raise my kids, take on issues that matter deeply to me, to travel to see the world. I feel very blessed in this role.”

Gingrich ran up a half million dollar credit line at Tiffany’s.
Gingrich took Calista on a Greek cruise when he should have been campaigning.
Calista’s tastes are, shall we say, upper crust … no coach seating for Calista.

Maybe you better rethink your Gingrich endorsement if avoiding unseemly spending in the White House is a high priority for you. 🙂

Well you know as I well as I do that is pure nonsense. You don’t know what Obama is spending from his personal funds for vacations and the use of official transportation is not optional, it is a security imperative. As for Gingrich, as I said before, Calista’s tastes will not change and he’ll be living high on the hog also … and using Air Force 1 to do so.

Was it necessary for Mooch to travel to Martha’s Vineyard 4 hours ahead of Barack Obama? Was it necessary for Mooch to fly to Hawaii days in advance? Was it necessary for Mooch to go to Spain or Vail? Are all of the White House concerts and parties necessary? Was it necessary for Obama to have date night in New York?

As I said earlier, I don’t care that they spent $50,000 a week on their Hawaiian house, nor do I care that they rented a massive farm estate in Martha’s Vineyard. However, I do care about them expending taxpayer dollars unnecessarily. Mooch can cool her fat ass for 4 hours instead of costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars so she can leave when ‘she wants too’.

You’ve demonstrated for all your complete lack of integrity, and this argument you’re putting forth is a complete failure. Really, are you going to compare what you THINK a hypothetical Gingrich presidency will do as opposed to what Obama has ACTUALLY DONE? This Administration had a $1.3 TRILLION deficit for 2011. Your argument that $100,000 here or there really doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things is flat out retarded. Of course it matters, we’re spending money we don’t have and wasteful spending like Mooch’s impatience is a Goddamn problem. Is it any wonder why people don’t believe your bullshit?

Hey R, you still want to ignore the point that Michele Antoinette thinks she’s somehow entitled?

(Telegraph) — Michelle Obama clashed frequently with Rahm Emmanuel, her husband’s White House chief of staff, as the pair vied for influence over the President, according to a new book.

The First Lady reportedly believed that Mr Emmanuel’s willingness to cut backroom deals during the battle over health care reform was tainting Barack Obama’s image as a new kind of American leader.

The Obamas paints a picture of a presidential inner circle divided between Mrs Obama’s idealistic belief in what the administration could achieve and the grittier pragmatism of Mr Emmanuel.

The book, written by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, claims that the chief of staff refused to allow the president’s wife into high-level morning meetings, leading a brooding Mrs Obama to berate other senior advisers by email.

She allegedly sent furious notes to Alyssa Mastromonaco, the president’s director of scheduling, and to Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago friend who now serves as one President Obama’s top advisors.

Ms Jarrett was said to remove the First Lady’s name before circulating the emails widely within the West Wing.

The then-press secretary Robert Gibbs was apparently often dispatched to placate Mrs Obama when limits were put on the amount she could spend on clothes or White House redecoration, as well as to explain why she could not take private holiday while on state visits.